About an hour after leaving Mzuzu, we reach the road to Rumphi. It's now about 2:30 p.m., which gives us a half hour to make it to the entrance of Nyika before being turned away. We think the gate is about 30-50 kilometers from town, so, even though the paved road ends in Rumphi, we figure we've got a fighting chance of coming in under the wire.
But first things first: we need gas.
We pulled off the north-south highway we'd been traveling since Lilongwe to take the road to Rumphi. After crossing a river, we drive determinedly to the only gas station in town. When we get there, we see that the attendants are meticulously squeezing the station's last drops of diesel into a generator. The only gas station in town has no gas for us.
Dan rolls down the window and the guys confirm that the situation is as it appears. Now, if we turn back to Mzuzu for gas we'll add two hours to our trip and most likely have to spend the night in Rumphi. From the looks of the town, this is not an attractive option. Plus, we've already paid for lodging in Nyika. Dan is pretty sure there's nothing beyond Rumphi but he asks anyway whether we'll find another gas station before Nyika. To our surprise, one of the attendants assures us that yes, about, fifteen minutes up the road, there's another station with diesel. We should try our luck there.
Dan is skeptical about the claim because he has driven past Rumphi before and saw nothing resembling a gas station, but we press on thinking that this guy must know better than us.
When we reach the edge of town where the paved road ends and the dirt road begins, we're stopped at a police checkpoint. Dan asks the officer about gas and the officer repeats what the attendant had said: about fifteen minutes up the road there's another gas station.
Good. We might just make it.
[Impending Doom Music Crescendo]
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